John Dickerson
Within moments of the broadcast networks coming on the air Tuesday night with their midterm coverage, ABC, CBS, and NBC had the long knives out for Republicans, condemning their “nativist,” “white-hot rhetoric” creating “one of the most divisive midterms in our lifetime” that was marred by “hate, violence and tragedy.”
On Monday, all three broadcast network morning shows offered a heroic portrayal of the caravan of thousands of illegal immigrants heading to the U.S. border from Central America. Anchors and correspondents were particularly thrilled by the group “defying” President Trump’s demand that they turn back, being “undeterred” from “their mission to get to America.”
Already looking past November’s midterm elections to the 2020 presidential race, on Wednesday, the hosts of CBS This Morning treated former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro to a fawning softball interview in which they repeatedly urged the Democrat to run in two years and wondered how he could help mobilize liberal voters in the coming weeks.
On Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, only CBS News covered North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp becoming embroiled in a major scandal due to her re-election campaign publicly outing sexual assault survivors without their consent in a series of newspaper ads across the state. Meanwhile, NBC and ABC refused to acknowledge the negative headline for the vulnerable Democrat ahead of the midterm elections.
CBS This Morning on Tuesday amplified the network’s one-sided narrative when it comes to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The show’s co-hosts wondered “what message” any kind of support for Kavanaugh sends to women. They also pushed the idea that women simply aren’t allowed to get angry.
John Dickerson, host of Face the Nation on CBS, is unusually confrontational with Republican Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a supporter of the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. The question arises because the normally mild-mannered Dickerson was shockingly combative with Cotton. View the video, because the transcript alone doesn't do justice to just how sarcastic and confrontational Dickerson was.
In contrast to the lunacy and character assassination of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on CNN and MSNBC, CBS’s reacted to Kavanaugh’s opening statement Thursday afternoon by calling it “searing, painful and tearful opening remarks” filled with “authenticity” that made one wonder “how you ever fake that” as his life has been ruined.
On Wednesday's CBS This Morning, liberal activist Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative was given a mostly unchallenged forum to advocate for reducing the large number of criminals in jail -- which liberals are known for labeling as "mass incarceration" -- as the group failed to make any mention of the role that jailing criminals has played in reducing crime over the past several decades.
In the midst of interviewing government officials responsible for coordinating the federal response to Hurricane Florence, all three broadcast Sunday shows harangued those relief workers with questions about President Trump’s recent comments about Hurricane Maria.
For some reason, CBS This Morning on Thursday decided to devote over six minutes of air time to the leaker of classified information. Live from prison, the show’s hosts interviewed Reality Winner via phone. Many of the questions were softballs, including this one from Norah O’Donnell: “It is the documents you leaked that really brought everyone's attention to the Russians trying to infiltrate and attack our state voting system which at the time was not common knowledge. What has it been like to see the Russia investigation unfold from behind bars?”
On Wednesday, CBS This Morning joined CNN in highlighting the case of an illegal immigrant who is suing the government because her one-year-old child tragically died after leaving an ICE detention center where she allegedly contracted an infection. After a complete report ran, co-host John Dickerson incorrectly hinted that the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy was to blame for the death, suggesting that the government agency was not ready for the additional number of detainees, prompting agreement from co-host Gayle King. However, not only were the pair detained and released under the old policy before zero tolerance took effect, but the total number of detainee deaths in FY2018 so far appears to be on track to be no greater than FY2016 which included most of President Barack Obama's final year in office.
The network that, for years, employed alleged sexual harassers Charlie Rose and CEO Les Moonves decided to lecture Americans on Friday about “doing the right thing when nobody is watching.” CBS This Morning co-host and Obama donor Gayle King was particularly sanctimonious, despite the fact that she once complained about having to cover the allegations against “my friend” Rose.